Digital health to strengthen pediatric surgical referral and follow-up in Low-resource settings: progress, gaps, and future directions - Summary - MDSpire
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Digital health to strengthen pediatric surgical referral and follow-up in Low-resource settings: progress, gaps, and future directions
To examine the current applications of digital health in pediatric surgical referral and follow-up, focusing on their value, implementation barriers, and future directions.
Key Findings:
Digital health tools can improve referral coordination and facilitate specialist input.
Simple digital tools may reduce unnecessary travel and support caregiver communication.
Postoperative follow-up is more heavily researched than referral and triage.
Existing evidence is uneven, dominated by pilot studies and context-specific experiences.
Concerns remain regarding infrastructure, digital inequity, workflow integration, privacy, and sustainability.
Interpretation:
Limitations:
Evidence is primarily from pilot studies and small observational designs.
Implementation challenges include infrastructure constraints and digital inequity.
Limited focus on referral and triage compared to postoperative follow-up.
